Financial oversight: internal and external control authorities

Sound financial management constitutes a major challenge of the national recovery and resilience plans. The architects of NGEU and the RRF have sought a delicate balance between macroeconomic performance (and the rapid injections of funds in national economies) and the protection of the Union’s financial interests. The result is a singular compromise, which this chapter seeks to unveil. On the one hand, the RRF is implemented in direct management, with the Member States as direct beneficiaries. On the other, recovery plans rest on an elaborate control and audit system à la shared management, which closely intertwines national and European apparati and is articulated around different procedural phases, placing national authorities and final recipients of recovery funds under tight and close scrutiny. The system also involves other supranational actors as external safeguards, namely the European Court of Auditors (ECA), the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).